Job Access + Transportation

 
Poverty Reduction Strategy no. 1

Improve access to jobs with increased transit, rideshare, employer shuttles, and more. In addition to benefiting low-income workers, expanding transit access benefits employers by widening the work pool, and making it easier and less costly to get to work helps families of all income levels.

Create connections with public transit and transportation alternatives

Growing the number of jobs accessible by a 30 minute transit ride by 10% could mean 1,470 more jobs for people living in poverty in Atlanta (assuming 10% of newly accessible jobs are filled by those now in poverty). But, it would also mean 14,701 more jobs accessible to everyone in Atlanta without driving alone.

Action: Identify missing connections between low-income neighborhoods and job centers and work with employers and transit agencies to improve access.

Additional Benefits: Improve access to jobs, reduce transportation expenses for families, and keep dollars in the local economy while creating a more connected city.

Stakeholders: Workers, transit agencies, employers, city planning and transportation departments, economic development councils, chambers of commerce, transit management associations.

Where it’s been done: Transportation Management Associations, like GO BNMC at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in New York, are member-run organizations that allow employers to provide transportation services.

View more best practice examples of where this strategy is being done belowto the right.

  • Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus

    Buffalo, NY: Transportation Management Associations, like GO BNMC at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in New York, are member-run organizations that allow employers to provide transportation services. GO BNMC was able to access hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, and 5 percent fewer employees drove alone in the program’s first year, saving themselves money and reducing parking demand.

  • Best Practice #2

    Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority

    Pinellas County, FL: Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, under the Transportation Disadvantaged program provides qualifying county residents (household income less than 150% of poverty) 23 free Uber rides between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am. The rides have to begin or end at a residence or place of employment. The late shift program is in addition to discounted bus passes, to be used beyond bus service hours.

Apply this strategy somewhere

Apply this strategy somewhere

Use the Urban Opportunity Agenda calculator to see how this strategy and others can reduce poverty, create economic opportunity, and build stronger communities.

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